Series: / standalone
Pages: 341
Genre: Fiction
A poignant, charming novel about a crime that never took place, a would-be bank robber who disappears into thin air, and eight extremely anxious strangers who find they have more in common than they ever imagined
Looking at real estate isn't usually a life-or-death situation, but an apartment open house becomes just that when a failed bank robber bursts in and takes a group of strangers hostage. The captives include a recently retired couple who relentlessly hunt down fixer-uppers to avoid the painful truth that they can't fix up their own marriage. There's a wealthy banker who has been too busy making money to care about anyone else and a young couple who are about to have their first child but can't seem to agree on anything, from where they want to live to how they met in the first place. Add to the mix an eighty-seven-year-old woman who has lived long enough not to be afraid of someone waving a gun in her face, a flustered but still-ready-to-make-a-deal real estate agent, and a mystery man who has locked himself in the apartment's only bathroom, and you've got the worst group of hostages in the world.
Each of them carries a lifetime of grievances, hurts, secrets, and passions that are ready to boil over. None of them is entirely who they appear to be. And all of them—the bank robber included—desperately crave some sort of rescue. As the authorities and the media surround the premises, these reluctant allies will reveal surprising truths about themselves and set in a motion a chain of events so unexpected that even they can hardly explain what happens next.
Humorous, compassionate, and wise, Anxious People is an ingeniously constructed story about the enduring power of friendship, forgiveness, and hope—the things that save us, even in the most anxious of times.
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❝They say that a person’s personality is the sum of their experiences. But that isn’t true, at least not entirely, because if our past was all that defined us, we’d never be able to put up with ourselves. We need to be allowed to convince ourselves that we’re more than the mistakes we made yesterday. That we are all of our next choices, too, all of our tomorrows.❞
I can't hide it anymore - I am officially a huge Backman fan! His writing is absolutely magnificent and he has a great talent for story-telling.
I've previously read two of his works - A Man called Ove and Beartown and I absolutely loved how realistically he portrayed all of the characters and the story in those two books and the way he wrote about problems and about things that aren't always easy to talk about. I expected something similar to that in this book, but I got something entirely else.
Anxious People is a story that starts quite unrealistically with very unrealistic (even absurd) characters. For the first half of the book, I didn't know where the story will take me and what I'll get out of it. I have to say I didn't really know what the message was and just couldn't really get into it, but the last half of the book, the story slowly started coming together and I connected all of the dots and had this 'oh!' moment.
I loved how Backman portrayed different problems from different people. How different people were thrown together in an unexpected and sudden way that no one could ever anticipate. We could say this story was really silly and funny, but it also dealt with modern problems and people who came out as silly and as rude idiots, but deep inside, they were all battling different battles no one really knew about.
This book was such a great and unexpected surprise because I really didn't know what to expect when I started reading it. But this is the thing with Backman - you can hardly predict how his books will play out. You always have to expect the unexpected and then some more.
Yet another book I can joyfully recommend!
Fredrik Backman is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Man Called Ove (soon to be a major motion picture starring Tom Hanks), My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry, Britt-Marie Was Here, Beartown, Us Against You, as well as two novellas, And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer and The Deal of a Lifetime. Things My Son Needs to Know About the World, his first work of non-fiction, will be released in the US in May 2019. His books are published in more than forty countries. He lives in Stockholm, Sweden, with his wife and two children. Connect with him on Twitter @BackmanLand or on Instagram @backmansk.
Series: #Sinners of Saint, #4
Pages: 354
Genre: New Adult
Bane
Naked surfer. Habitual pothead. A con, a liar, a thief and a fraud.
Last I heard, he was extorting the rich and screwing their wives for a living.
Which is why I’m more than a little surprised to find him at my threshold, looking for my friendship, my services, and most puzzling of all—looking humbled.
Thing is, I’m on a boycott. Literally—I cut boys from my life. Permanently.
Problem is, Bane is not a boy, he is all man, and I’m falling, crashing, drowning in his sweet, perfect lies.
Jesse Carter
Hot as hell, cold as ice.
I wasn’t aware of her existence until a fat, juicy deal landed in my lap.
She’s a part of it, a little plaything to kill some time.
She is collateral, a means to an end, and a side-bonus for striking a deal with her oil tycoon stepdad.
More than anything, Jesse Carter is a tough nut to crack.
Little does she know, I have the teeth for it.
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I've already given up on L. J. Shen's books last year because I already figured they aren't for me, but I found this book on my kindle and I don't even know when I bought it (and why), so I decided to give this author another chance, but it just wasn't working. A part of the reason why I gave this book such a low rating is because I gave up on it at 80 % because it really wasn't working for me from the beginning.
I have quite a few thoughts about this book. I already wrote about this author stealing other authors' words and never crediting them and while I understand a lot of authors do that, I honestly and truthfully have never seen someone do it so blatantly. It's like throwing a bunch of quotes from Pinterest in the book and call them yours.
Even in the very beginning before books starts she wrote: "Spoiler: the princess saves herself in this fairytale", referencing a book The Princess Saves Herself in This One by Amanda Lovelace. Just from this, I had a feeling things won't go smoothly in this book, even though this wasn't such a big deal for me.
Moving on, she used some more of other poets' words without ever giving them credit, but just passing these lines as her own. Now - this is where it really started to bother me and rub me in wrong because - seriously, we're doing this again?
- "You don't need a prince, princess. You need a sword." - L. J.
"She wasn't looking for a knight, she was looking for a sword." - Atticus
- "I can't drown my demons. They know how to swim." - L. J.
"I can't drown my demons. They know how to swim." - Bring Me The Horizon
This just shows for me that L. J. lacks originality and I don't like this kind of thing, it always bothers me with her books.
Moving on from this, the majority of us know who Vicious is. Although I did not particularly enjoy that book, I just can't help but laugh at how stupid L. J. made Vicious look in this book. "Bane is awfully similar to Vicious, wouldn't you agree?" These are the exact words Vicious said to Bane at their meeting. I just couldn't help but LOL because she proved my point that Vicious is a stupid ass.
And then also, what the heck is with the weird comparisons? I know L. J. is known for that, but sometimes ... things just don't make sense? He was wrapped head-to-toe in Brioni, with sleek black hair and porcelain white skin. He looked like a Michelin-starred steak, and I looked like a greasy drive-thru cheeseburger. Seriously - what?
All in all, this was a typical Shen book with a manwhore male character (this time quite literally because he was selling his service (sex) to 46 women) and an inexperienced, innocent girl who suffers from a tragic sexual experience and past (rape). Sometimes, L. J. Shen's perception of tragedy and 'healing' baffles me, especially when Jesse told Bane about what happened to her and right immediately after that, they have weird, unprotected sex, even though Jesse was pregnant once and even though Bane is a known manwhore. Yup, sounds about right.
Also, the lack of understanding and compassion also shows in Jesse not being able to let any male in her life touch her or come close to her, but then Bane comes and she's suddenly all over him and wants to have sex with him before getting emotionally involved. These things don't heal overnight.
I didn't quite dislike this book that much and I gave it a higher rating only because of showing that girls like Jesse can live on and can take their lives back in their hands, especially in a sexual way. And that's pretty much the only thing I actually liked in this whole book.
It was a boring read, the story was dragging on and I wasn't invested or interested in it. This was not her typical enemies-to-lovers, but it was more on the tame side (thankfully) and Bane was actually a likeable character.
With this book, I am now officially done reading books by this author because ... they just don't work for me.
L.J. Shen is USA Today and Washington Post bestselling author of contemporary romance books. She lives in California with her husband, son and lazy cat.
When she's not writing, she enjoys reading a good book with a glass of wine and catching up on her favorite HBO and Netflix shows.
Yeah, she's a badass like that.
Keep up with L.J. on all platforms:
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Website ➜ www.authorljshen.com
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Release date: April 16th, 2019
Series: / standalone
Pages: 273
Genre: Fiction
At school Connell and Marianne pretend not to know each other. He’s popular and well-adjusted, star of the school soccer team while she is lonely, proud, and intensely private. But when Connell comes to pick his mother up from her housekeeping job at Marianne’s house, a strange and indelible connection grows between the two teenagers - one they are determined to conceal.
A year later, they’re both studying at Trinity College in Dublin. Marianne has found her feet in a new social world while Connell hangs at the sidelines, shy and uncertain. Throughout their years in college, Marianne and Connell circle one another, straying toward other people and possibilities but always magnetically, irresistibly drawn back together. Then, as she veers into self-destruction and he begins to search for meaning elsewhere, each must confront how far they are willing to go to save the other.
Sally Rooney brings her brilliant psychological acuity and perfectly spare prose to a story that explores the subtleties of class, the electricity of first love, and the complex entanglements of family and friendship.
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I don’t know why I can’t be like normal people.
I'll admit something: I didn't expect I'd enjoy this book as much as I did because I often struggle with popular books that everyone praises - my expectations just get too high and many books don't reach them.
I didn't really love this book, but there's something about it that just pulled me in and kept me reading. It was captivating and different and I just wanted to know how Connell and Marianne's relationship will play out at the end. Let me tell you - I wasn't prepared for that.
This is also the second book in my life I've read that didn't use quotation marks for conversations and I needed some time to get used to it, but it worked and it was clear when a sentence was said out loud and when it was just a thought.
I like the whole idea of this book; about two people just looking for normalcy. Being young, you often feel lost and confused and like everyone around you has it perfectly together while this is often not the case.
It was also a different switch of Connell and Marianne's lives and seeing them adjust to the difference. Marianne is the unpopular girl at the beginning of the book with a rich family, but with no friends, because no one wants to even be seen around while Connell is more popular, more outgoing and more known and liked.
They start their secret relationship about which nobody should know about, but when at college, things change for both of them and Marianne becomes the liked and popular girl while Connell seems to lose himself a little and doesn't know how to find himself. He doesn't have any friends and is having quite a hard time.
Marianne and Connell's relationship is on and off and this book is about people leaving and returning back to your life. It's like that with some people - they leave and when they come back, it's like they've never left. With Marianne and Connell, it was like something was pulling them together, but they didn't know how to figure out how to be with each other because they just didn't know how to properly communicate.
I truly enjoyed reading this book, it was a quick and easy read, despite it dealing with tough and heavy subjects, but I think that's the magic in it.
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Sally Rooney was born in 1991 and lives in Dublin, where she graduated from Trinity College. Her work has appeared in Granta, The Dublin Review, The White Review, The Stinging Fly, and the Winter Pages anthology.
Release date: June 1st, 2008
Series: / standalone
Pages: 648
Genre: Historical fiction
A foundling, an old book of dark fairy tales, a secret garden, an aristocratic family, a love denied, and a mystery. The Forgotten Garden is a captivating, atmospheric and compulsively readable story of the past, secrets, family and memory from the international best-selling author Kate Morton.
Cassandra is lost, alone and grieving. Her much loved grandmother, Nell, has just died and Cassandra, her life already shaken by a tragic accident ten years ago, feels like she has lost everything dear to her. But an unexpected and mysterious bequest from Nell turns Cassandra’s life upside down and ends up challenging everything she thought she knew about herself and her family.
Inheriting a book of dark and intriguing fairytales written by Eliza Makepeace—the Victorian authoress who disappeared mysteriously in the early twentieth century—Cassandra takes her courage in both hands to follow in the footsteps of Nell on a quest to find out the truth about their history, their family and their past; little knowing that in the process, she will also discover a new life for herself.
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Memory is a cruel mistress with whom we all must learn to dance.
I was seriously positively surprised by this book. This was a random pick for me so I didn't know what to expect from it, I didn't even fully know what it's about.
In the beginning, I needed some time to get used to the story and the jumping from people and years. This story is told by three women of three generations in the years 1913, 1975 and 2005.
It's basically about a woman with a tragic past and tragic and quite sad and lonely life who didn't have anyone but her cousin. Her aunt was her biggest enemy since she was a child and she did everything in her power to make Eliza disappear and turn her daughter, Rose, against her in the end.
There were some twisted secrets this family was hiding and Cassandra's grandmother, Nell, started her search for her real family when, at 21, she finds out she's adopted and she digs out some deeply forgotten secrets about her family, although she never really finds out the complete truth.
Cassandra, her granddaughter, finishes what her grandmother started and completes the puzzle of the story, revealing a heartbreaking truth about Eliza Makepeace, the famous writer of fairytales who mysteriously disappeared.
I was really captivated by this book. The more secrets I found out, the more I wanted to know. It was beautifully written and heartbreaking at some parts, but it's a beautiful and unexpected story and I truly enjoyed reading it.
I also loved the romance between Cassandra and Christian and just loved them together! Fate really works in mysterious ways and this book proved that.
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"I fell deeply in love with books as a child and believe that reading is freedom; that to read is to live a thousand lives in one; that fiction is a magical conversation between two people - you and me - in which our minds meet across time and space. I love books that conjure a world around me, bringing their characters and settings to life, so that the real world disappears and all that matters, from beginning to end, is turning one more page."
Kate Morton's six novels - The House at Riverton, The Forgotten Garden, The Distant Hours, The Secret Keeper, The Lake House, and The Clockmaker's Daughter - have all been New York Times bestsellers, Sunday Times bestsellers and international number 1 bestsellers; they are published in 34 languages, across 42 countries.
You can find more information about Kate Morton and her books at https://www.katemorton.com or connect on http://www.facebook.com/KateMortonAuthor or instagram.com/katemortonauthor/
To stay up-to-date on Kate's books and events, join her mailing list here: https://www.katemorton.com/mailing-list/
Release date: April 1972
Series: Birmingham #1
Pages: 430
Genre: Historical romance
Doomed to a life of unending toil, Heather Simmons fears for her innocence — until a shocking, desperate act forces her to flee... and to seek refuge in the arms of a virile and dangerous stranger.
A lusty adventurer married to the sea, Captain Brandon Birmingham courts scorn and peril when he abducts the beautiful fugitive from the tumultuous London dockside. But no power on Earth can compel him to relinquish his exquisite prize. For he is determined to make the sapphire-eyed lovely his woman... and to carry her off to far, uncharted realms of sensuous, passionate love.
This is one of the books I am unable to rate because I don't know exactly where to put it. While this was surprisingly well written; in such a way that really had my interest, it also has things in it that I did not enjoy at all. I was intrigued by what this story was all about because I've heard so many people rave about it and because this is the book from which the 'modern' historical romance books were born.
I have to say that the start of this book wasn't promising. I liked the writing right away, but at around page 50, things started to get downhill with the story. The reason? Brandon. I kept in mind that I was reading a historical book (and I did read quite a lot of books in this genre in my life and I've never faced this dilemma before).
For the sake of the story, I could probably understand and forgive Brandon for doing what he did to Heather the first time they met because, yes, different time and place and him not knowing who she was could be a good excuse. But ... three times?! After she struggled, said no, wanted him to stop and cried ... He raped her three times, not minding her struggles. Even after he saw he took her virginity and she was in pain.
I continued reading on, but I didn't finish this book completely. I read enough to form an opinion that it wasn't my cup of tea because I couldn't get past Brandon and his weird, aggressive personality.
In my eyes, he did not have many redeeming qualities later in the book because even after Heather and he became married, he kept thinking about taking her with force (and getting turned on by his thoughts!) and, even at the end, he was all about I don't care, you're my wife and I'm taking you if you want to or not.
Yes, this all happened at a different time while things like this were completely normal, but I seriously did not enjoy this book as much I wanted to. The story itself wasn't anything interesting and it quickly started to bore me.
Kathleen Erin Hogg was born on June 3, 1939, in Alexandria, Louisiana, she was the youngest of eight siblings by Gladys (Coker) and Charles Wingrove Hogg, a disabled World War I veteran. She long relished creating original narratives, and by age 6 was telling herself stories at night to help herself fall asleep. At age 16, she met U.S. Air Force Second Lieutenant Ross Eugene Woodiwiss at a dance, and they married the following year. She wrote her first book in longhand while living at a military outpost in Japan.
She is credited with the invention of the modern historical romance novel: In 1972 she released The Flame and the Flower, an instant New York Times bestseller that created a literary precedent. The novel revolutionized mainstream publishing, featuring an epic historical romance with a strong heroine and impassioned sex scenes. The Flame and the Flower was rejected by agents and hardcover publishers, who deemed it as "too long" at 600 pages. Rather than follow the advice of the rejection letters and rewrite the novel, she instead submitted it to paperback publishers. The first publisher on her list, Avon, quickly purchased the novel and arranged an initial 500,000 print run. The novel sold over 2.3 million copies in its first four years of publication.
The success of The Flame and the Flower prompted a new style of writing romance, concentrating primarily on historical fiction tracking the monogamous relationship between a helpless heroines and the hero who rescued her, even if he had been the one to place her in danger. The romance novels which followed in her example featured longer plots, more controversial situations and characters, and more intimate and steamy sex scenes.
She was an avid horse rider who at one time lived in a large home on 55 acres (220,000 m2) in Minnesota. After her husband's death in 1996, she moved back to Louisiana. She died in a hospital on July 6, 2007 in Princeton, Minnesota, aged 68, from cancer. She was survived by two sons, Sean and Heath, their wives, and numerous grandchildren. Her third son, Dorren, predeceased her.
Release date: September 3rd, 2013
Series: L'amica geniale #2
Pages: 471
Genre: Fiction
In The Story of a New Name, Lila has recently married and made her entrée into the family business; Elena, meanwhile, continues her studies and her exploration of the world beyond the neighborhood that she so often finds stifling. Love, jealousy, family, freedom, commitment, and above all friendship: these are signs under which both women live out this phase in their stories. Marriage appears to have imprisoned Lila, and the pressure to excel is at times too much for Elena. Yet the two young women share a complex and evolving bond that is central to their emotional lives and is a source of strength in the face of life's challenges. In these Neapolitan Novels, Elena Ferrante, the acclaimed author of The Days of Abandonment, gives readers a poignant and universal story about friendship and belonging.
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There are people who leave and people who know how to be left.
4.25 stars!
Ferrante wins my heart once again, making me fall in love with her writing even more in this book.
Ferrante's writing is pretty simple, there's nothing to gush about, but it always amazes me how she can create such complex characters and story with simple words. It really makes me wonder if the story is based on her real-life experience because you could just feel the emotions.
I found this story a little more interesting than the one in the first book, there were a lot of things happening with Lila. Lila was a character in this book that I had some trouble reading, I could never understand her motives behind her actions and she was always unpredictable.
She was trying to be a good friend to Lena by helping her with school books and trying to give her a place where she could learn, but then she also did things that really hurt Lena and that, as a reader, made me truly frustrated and mad on Lena's behalf.
In this book, Lena and Lila's friendship came to a breaking point and they both kind of went into other ways, each of them living a very different life.
Their roles kind of switch in this book where Lena becomes quite successful at a very young age and Lila kind of stagnates and falls lower in her life, losing everything she always wished she'd have and ends up completely alone and having to work hard to survive, but she still doesn't lose her true character.
I'm now officially a fan of this series and I can't wait to read the third book!
P.S. I strongly dislike English version covers. They're really terrible and unappealing. Am I the only one?
Elena Ferrante is a pseudonymous Italian novelist. Ferrante's books, originally published in Italian, have been translated into many languages. Her four-book series of Neapolitan Novels are her most widely known works.
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